Looking for that special gift? For someone who has everything? You could try buying a dinosaur - an Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex's ancestor for example. A fine specimen is due to go under the hammer in a Paris auction house tomorrow.
Measuring more than 10 metres, the T-Rex is the part of the Natural History auction at Sotheby's.
The record for historical skeletons was grabbed by "Sue", a T-Rex skeleton sold in New York for US$8.4 million in 1997. The one on display in Paris stormed around the surface of the planet up to 153 million years ago, terrorising everything in its path.
"Here, you have the largest specimen that has been found since we discovered the species," said Eric Mickeler, a natural history specialist at Sotheby's.
The Jurassic decoration is 70 percent complete and in a position of pouncing - so you would need a colossal apartment to display the giant.
"In the last few years, you've had modern art collectors who think this kind of item can find it's place in an interior with modern art," Mickeler said.
But if the T-Rex is too much to get your teeth into, you can bid for apartment-friendly smaller fossils.
A total of 86 lots are on sale, ranging from a 100,000-year-old skeleton of a woolly rhinoceros with an asking price of €90,000 to a collection of fluorescent minerals on sale from €20,000.
Reuters